I would most definitely agree that I like the 09 iDrive much more than the old one. It's much more user friendly, and I can get to where I want in the menu much more quickly. But technologically, I think that it's a step backwards. The new iDrive's knob is not dynamic - mean that it's just a simple input device. The old one, on the other hand, changes it's behavior depending on what screen you are in. I think that this can give the drive feed back without looking at the screen. I'm not trying to get in to an argument about driving safety and weather drivers can keep their eyes on the road more with the old iDrive, but I just think that the old one is more fancy and impressive. Why did bmw spend all the time and money to develop this technology and just drop it altogether instead of improving on it?

i had the old idrive on my previous car and overall i enjoyed it. It is a great system once you are comfortable with it. However the new one can be more easily accessed by those who are electronic dummies and housewives especially. My dad who is in his mid forties would definitely prefer the new one to the old. As he didnt even wanna touch anything when he was in my car cause he was so afraid to go into the rong menue and resetting everything. In his benz s class (the 04model) he can operate everything with ease. Same with a lot of the older guys i guess.

The old main menu is definitely easier to navigate than the new menu, but the new system is so much faster than the old interface. If I have to choose between the two, I'd still pick the new system because of the faster operation and the ability to choose more contents in the split screen.

i had the old idrive on my previous car and overall i enjoyed it. It is a great system once you are comfortable with it. However the new one can be more easily accessed by those who are electronic dummies and housewives especially. My dad who is in his mid forties would definitely prefer the new one to the old. As he didnt even wanna touch anything when he was in my car cause he was so afraid to go into the rong menue and resetting everything. In his benz s class (the 04model) he can operate everything with ease. Same with a lot of the older guys i guess.

Are you saying mid-forties is "older guys" Jesus, are you 12? If so print your text and when you are 45 put it somewhere dark and "crappy"...sorry OT but jeez..."rong" starts with a w by the way.

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couldn't disagree more...the new system is so much better than the old system. better graphics, faster processing, and shortcut buttons to pull up common selections. I used to own a 335i with the old iDrive...the new system is in an entirely different league. i am surprised you feel that way.

couldn't disagree more...the new system is so much better than the old system. better graphics, faster processing, and shortcut buttons to pull up common selections. I used to own a 335i with the old iDrive...the new system is in an entirely different league. i am surprised you feel that way.

he agrees with you, he specifically is talking about introducing static physical buttons that do one and only one thing in the new system vs. the dynamic nature of the old buttons that can perform different things based on the screen. In terms of technology and software development this is definitely a step backwards. In terms of usage, etc. maybe not.

he agrees with you, he specifically is talking about introducing static physical buttons that do one and only one thing in the new system vs. the dynamic nature of the old buttons that can perform different things based on the screen. In terms of technology and software development this is definitely a step backwards. In terms of usage, etc. maybe not.

Actually, what you want in software development is to have the "simplest" software code possible that can perform as many different functions as possible without useless complexity. Having different functions depending on the screen is not the simplest code possible; that's a bug magnet when you try to change that code to do something slightly different in a different screen and a customer focus of complaints when the code is doing their "thing" and not what the customer naturally expects.

For me, the new iDrive is using a simple, unified code to instill familiarity and ease of navigating thru the menus. It should be easier and cheaper for BMW to maintain and update, and it should be easier for the customer to use and be satisfied without useless dealer visits.

I think that what is a really step backwards is the whole "Vehicle Order" code structure in BMWs, where the whole car has to be flashed if one module needs updating. That's where a bunch of complaints are coming from... one module is fixed while another not previously having issues now is not working properly.

Actually, what you want in software development is to have the "simplest" software code possible that can perform as many different functions as possible without useless complexity. Having different functions depending on the screen is not the simplest code possible; that's a bug magnet when you try to change that code to do something slightly different in a different screen and a customer focus of complaints when the code is doing their "thing" and not what the customer naturally expects.

For me, the new iDrive is using a simple, unified code to instill familiarity and ease of navigating thru the menus. It should be easier and cheaper for BMW to maintain and update, and it should be easier for the customer to use and be satisfied without useless dealer visits.

I think that what is a really step backwards is the whole "Vehicle Order" code structure in BMWs, where the whole car has to be flashed if one module needs updating. That's where a bunch of complaints are coming from... one module is fixed while another not previously having issues now is not working properly.

no, not at all. it's not about having simplest code otherwise we'd be stuck with VB6 which is simple but is a nightmare!

having a good code base to make everything configurable and promoting re-use heavily is the good practice. having dynamic buttons and controls promotes re-use.

in terms of HCI (human-computer interaction) simplicity and straightforward-ness is the way to go.

no, not at all. it's not about having simplest code otherwise we'd be stuck with VB6 which is simple but is a nightmare!

having a good code base to make everything configurable and promoting re-use heavily is the good practice. having dynamic buttons and controls promotes re-use.

in terms of HCI (human-computer interaction) simplicity and straightforward-ness is the way to go.

That's what I meant for "simplest", a great -not just good- code source where the rest can be built upon and re-use with minimum changes. That where the dynamism should come from, not from different "pieces".

So multiple screens with individual functions maps is not simple, as you are mostly re-coding and not mostly reusing code.

i had the old idrive on my previous car and overall i enjoyed it. It is a great system once you are comfortable with it. However the new one can be more easily accessed by those who are electronic dummies and housewives especially. My dad who is in his mid forties would definitely prefer the new one to the old. As he didnt even wanna touch anything when he was in my car cause he was so afraid to go into the rong menue and resetting everything. In his benz s class (the 04model) he can operate everything with ease. Same with a lot of the older guys i guess.

I'm 32 and have been using computers and their various interfaces since I could barely walk - I was the kid programming the VCR and the Timex Sinclair when I was 7 or 8, and I wouldn't be where I am in my career if I didn't have an ease with clunky and/or downright awful interfaces.

The above isn't to brag, but to counterpoint the "electronic dummies and housewives" stuff before I say this: the '08 iDrive's interface is garbage. I test-drove it and then test-drove the '09 iDrive, and there's just no comparison. Since there were significantly better deals to be had on 08s, I really wanted to like the '08, and wanted to believe the people on forums like this one who were saying that the '08 was fine for non-edummies and non-housewives, but I did not find that to be true.

We sat down in the '08 and I asked the CA to show me what it takes to do what I consider to be a pretty routine task for a nav system: find the closest Best Buy and lock in a route to it. She eventually gave up. I took a crack at it, and after a bunch of pain, I think I was close, but we got kicked out of the car for another CA who needed it for a test drive. It was so ridiculously bad, at every step of the way - finding the right menu, finding the right place to enter the name of the store, finding the 'space' character, etc. It's far easier on my four-year-old piece-of-crap Garmin. It was also no problem at all in the '09. I don't really care about having the new shortcut buttons, but the new GUI makes a huge, huge difference.